The Life of Chanel
Chanel was born Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel on August 19, 1883, in Saumur, France. Coco Chanel was raised in a low-income household. After their mother passed away, her father abandoned her, her two sisters, to an orphanage, and her two brothers to a local family. Chanel was raised by nuns who taught her how to sew a skill that would lead to her life’s work. Her nickname came from another occupation entirely. During her brief career as a singer, Chanel performed in clubs in Vichy and Moulins where she was called “Coco.”
The Works of Chanel
More than any other designer of the twentieth century, Coco Chanel revised and adapted fashion to the tenets of utility and integrity of materials, tenets that are the defining features of modernism. Her emphasis on the functionalism of sportswear and her appropriations from menswear, as well as from service and military uniforms, broke with typical haute-couture dress styles and practices. Pragmatic and purposeful, her clothes were designed with realistic lifestyle applications. Chanel's early sportswear ensembles reformed restrictive Edwardian conventions.
